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Petitioning and
People Power in
Twentieth-Century Britain

Our research project, 2020-2023

Our three-year project brings together experts in the history of petitioning, in political studies of public engagement, and in twentieth-century British society to investigate petitioning as an activity and an institution.

This enables the team to analyse a core challenge of mass democracy: how should direct, participatory, and representative democracy mix in a larger, more diverse political community?

The project’s broad chronology and interdisciplinary team permit investigation of the shift from paper to e-petitioning, enabling the first historical account of what might be gained and lost in transitions from analogue to digital politics.

Twentieth-century Britons petitioned a lot

Petitioners ranged from children opposing caning in the classroom, residents resisting new supermarkets on their streets, or campaigners seeking to abolish nuclear weapons around the globe.

79% of British respondents had signed a petition – a higher rate than turned out to vote in the 1997 General Election.

1999 European Values Survey

The project unites an interdisciplinary team from three universities, funded by research grant AH/T003847/1

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